This invention relates to an installation for the production of chemical substances, structured in continuously and/or sequentially operating control regions for individual divisional functions, containing measurement devices for the process parameters, regulation devices, switching equipment for the flow paths which occur in different types of operation, and safety devices. The invention also relates to a process for controlling chemical production installations, in which divisional functions are carried out in continuous and/or batch control regions, the operating value and type of operation of which may be changed, and these control regions cooperate serially and/or in parallel.
Attempts are constantly being made during the operation of chemical production installations to minimise the times in which the installations cannot be operated with the necessary desired capacity owing to disturbances or changes in the type of operation. Even in methods which only have a few divisional processes, it is not known, even with the use of electronic data processing equipment, how an optimum strategy may be achieved for attaining the desired capacity for the complete method. Although all the individual data necessary for controlling the method are known, the cooperation of different process groups is usually so minimally flexible that considerable safety time allowances become indispensable for unforeseeable deviations and disturbances during the divisional functions. It is often left to the subtle intuition of the personnel to coordinate the cooperation of the divisional processes. According to experience, the operations of starting up and changes in load are particularly associated with disturbances and interruptions, for example because individual regions cannot produce the required capacity at the right time, or the adaptation of the operational parameters is too slow, which also results in a run-out from the desired region and, for the most part, results in a correction which is expensive in terms of time, possibly even in the re-start of the intended procedure. In the case of firmly planned reserve times, a starting up operation or a change in load of the installation cannot be achieved, even according to definition, with the shortest possible procedure time.
No control process and no installation adjusted thereto is known, in which optimum strategies may be achieved for a maximum capacity of the complete process upon changing the operating condition in one, several or all divisional processes.